SOURCE: EFE

Ignacio Alfonso Abreu, 30, son of the secretary of the CNDH (National Human Rights Commission)  in Moca, Dominican Republic, was shot dead in the province of Espaillat (north) on Wednesday afternoon. The case  is being investigated by Internal Affairs of the National Police.

According to CNDH, agents of a Rapid Action Group patrol took Abreu from his home, in La Española and killed him right after he implored them not to kill him.

The president of the CNDH, Manuel María Mercedes, told Efe that the organization he leads believes that the murder may be related to the human rights activism of Abreu and his father, highlighting that Espaillat “is a conflictive province with inequality and social problems.”

“We do not rule out that it is a response from the institution to intimidate human rights defenders and therefore popular leaders,” Mercedes said.

The National Police spokesman, Frank Félix Durán, told Efe that the institution’s management appointed a high-level commission on Wednesday to investigate the circumstances in which Abreu’s death occurred.

“The director general of the National Police, Major General Ney Aldrin Almonte, appointed a commission made up of the Inspector General of the Police, General Rafael Cabrera Sarita, and the Director of Internal Affairs, General Héctor García Cuevas, who today moved to Moca to start the investigations,” said Duran.

According to CNDH data, so far this year there have been about 80 extrajudicial executions in the Dominican Republic and the number exceeds 160 in the last two years, under the management of the National Police’s current director.